Use this Guide to find out more about what options and rights you have if you are being sued for foreclosure:Read the "Common Questions" to learn about the process of foreclosure and options for saving your home. Determine if you need a lawyer.Complete and file the court forms to answer the complaint.Attend the court proceedings Click on words that appear like 'this' to learn what these words mean.]]> Select from the list below:]]> What is a mortgage foreclosure?A mortgage is a written agreement between a mortgage company and home buyers. The mortgage makes your house collateral for your home loan. Collateral is security for a loan, so if you do not pay the mortgage company, they can try to take your house. This process is called a mortgage foreclosure.In the foreclosure lawsuit, the mortgage company is the plaintiff, and you are the defendant. If the court rules against you, your house can be sold at public auction. The money from that sale is used to try to pay off your loan.]]>What should I do if I am served with a mortgage foreclosure summons?If you get a Summons and Complaint from the court, do not hide or throw it away. Do not move from your home. Foreclosure proceedings take several months to finish and you may have options to save your home. Only the judge can order you to move out of your home.If you are served with a mortgage foreclosure summons, it means your mortgage company has started a lawsuit to take your house from you. To protect your rights, you must file an Appearance and an Answer within 30 days of getting the Summons. If you do not file an Answer, the judge will order a foreclosure against you and you will lose your home. You should attend all future court dates in order to know what is going on in your case. ]]>How do I file an Appearance and Answer after being served with a mortgage foreclosure summons?Once you have looked at all of the information related to your mortgage, you need to fill out an Appearance and an Answer. An Appearance is to let the court know that you understand that there is a lawsuit against you. Filing this Appearance is not saying that you agree with the plaintiff. By filing an Appearance, you will be notified of future court dates. An Answer is your response to the foreclosure complaint that was served on you with the summons. Your Answer should respond to each paragraph of that complaint. If you do not respond to each paragraph, the judge will assume you agree to it. Read through the complaint so you understand what it says.You must file these forms within 30 days of getting the Summons. Go to the "Forms/Letters" section of this guide to get the forms and instructions.]]>What if I cannot afford the filing fees to file my Appearance and Answer?Filing an Appearance and Answer is an important and necessary step for you to take to participate in your case. If you cannot pay the filing fees, you may ask the judge to waive the fees. You need to fall below a certain level of income to get your filing fees waived. You must file a "Certificate to Sue or Defend as a Poor Person" and have the judge grant your request before you file your Appearance and Answer in order to not have to pay the fees. See the "Related Articles" section to learn how to file a Certificate to Sue or Defend as a Poor Person.]]>What are possible defenses to a mortgage foreclosure lawsuit?You may have a defense to a mortgage foreclosure lawsuit if:You were encouraged by the lender or a broker to exaggerate your income on your loan application;There was a bait-and switch of the terms of the loan. For example, if at the closing you were informed the loan would require a higher interest rate than was originally promised;Your refinance or home equity loan is less than 3 years old and the lender did not accurately tell you information about the loan's Annual Percentage Rate (APR), finance charge(s), amount financed, total of payments or schedule of payments;Your broker received an unreasonable lump-sum payment (commission) for brokering the loan;A contractor started the loan as part of a home repair contractYou have your own insurance, and the lender has added an insurance premium to your account (force-placed insurance). In certain circumstances, forced insurance may be legal.The lender has not applied all your payments to your account.If you think one of these situations applies to you, then you should talk to a lawyer. Search the "Helpful Organizations" section below to find free legal help.Even if none of these situations applies to you, there are other options discussed in this guide that may help you.]]>What are my options if I am sued for foreclosure?You should talk to a lawyer about your legal options. Defending a foreclosure case is usually very complicated. Some of the options are explained here, but they are not legal advice. You need to read these very carefully, talk with a lawyer if you can, and decide what will work best for you. Search the "Helpful Organizations" section below to find free legal help.Reinstatement: Reinstatement means catching up on all your missed payments. You must also pay the mortgage company's attorney fees, court costs, and other charges. You must make these payments within 90 days of the date you are given notice of the foreclosure action. Notice can be given in person, by service of a Summons on you, or through notice in a newspaper if you cannot be found. If you reinstate the mortgage, the foreclosure suit will end and your mortgage will still be in effect. You can reinstate only once every 5 years.Repayment Plan: A repayment plan helps you reinstate your loan over time. Generally, the lender will ask that you make a down payment of half of the money that is overdue. The lender will then charge 1 1/2 payments a month until you are no longer behind in your payments. A lender will normally not accept a repayment plan after a bankruptcy.Redemption: You can pay off the whole loan. This is called redemption. You have the right to pay off the loan during the redemption period which, for a home, ends 7 months after the date you got the foreclosure complaint or 3 months after the date the judgment of foreclosure is entered, whichever is later. The redemption period must end before there can be a foreclosure sale. Redemption usually happens when the house is sold or when the property is refinanced. Home Sale/Short Payoff: You can sell your home anytime before the foreclosure is finished. A short payoff happens when you owe more on the loan than the house is worth. In a short payoff, the lender will take the money from the sale of the house as payment for the loan, even though you owed more money than that. A lender will usually not accept a short-payoff on a refinance.Refinance: You may possibly refinance the loan if you have enough equity in your home. However, you will pay a high interest rate plus high loan charges. You should be very careful about refinancing. You are likely to get many offers to refinance and save the home. The terms of these offers may be "predatory." Homeowners often end up losing the house after paying even more money to refinance. You will usually get a better rate from a bank or credit union. Try these before looking for other lending options.Loan Modification: You can ask your lender to change the terms of the mortgage. For example, the lender may let you pay off the loan over a longer period of time, add the amount owed to the mortgage amount or lower the interest rate.Bankruptcy: Sometimes you can deal with your foreclosure problem by filing for bankruptcy. A Chapter 7 bankruptcy will get rid of all your debts but you will lose your house. A Chapter 13 bankruptcy is a type of repayment plan. Generally, you must make your current monthly mortgage payment plus enough extra to bring your loan current in about 24 months. You should talk with a lawyer about whether filing bankruptcy is a good option for you.Deed-in-Lieu of Foreclosure: If your lender agrees, you can give the lender the deed to your house and ask the lender to forgive all debts. By accepting the deed, the lender gives up the right to sue. A lender will not accept a deed in lieu of foreclosure if there are other liens on the property.If you have an FHA or HUD-insured loan, you may qualify for other programs to help you avoid foreclosure. See "Programs to Avoid Foreclosure on FHA Loans" under "Related Articles."]]>Will I be able to win the mortgage foreclosure lawsuit?It can be very hard to win this kind of case in court. By defending the foreclosure, you may make the process last as much as 24 months longer. But, this will cost more money because you will probably need to hire a lawyer. You may want to look at your other options if you are being sued for foreclosure. Or, see if you can get free legal help by searching the "Helpful Organizations" section below.]]>How long does a foreclosure case last?It may take several months for a foreclosure case to be finished. As the case proceeds, you may stay in your home. The law says you are allowed set periods of time to exercise your rights and perhaps save your home (such as redeeming and reinstating of the loan). Until these set periods run, the case cannot move on to the next step in the foreclosure process. One of the last steps of a foreclosure case is an Order of Possession is entered by the judge telling you that you must move out of your home by a certain date. Until the sheriff has to enforce the Order of Possession (and evict you if you are still living in the property), you are able to stay in your home. For more information on how long a foreclosure takes, visit the "Related Articles" in this Guide. ]]>What happens if the mortgage company gets a judgment against me?A judgment for foreclosure means you owe the lender the amount of the loan and allows the lender to sell your home. However, the lender must wait until the period for you to exercise your right to redeem or reinstate your loan has run out before a foreclosure sale can occur. Your right to reinstate (pay the arrearage and bring mortgage current) ends 90 days after you were served with the summons and complaint for foreclosure. Your right to redeem (pay the full judgment off plus any post-judgment interests and other costs) ends 7 months after you were served with the summons and complaint or 3 months after the judgment for foreclosure was entered against you whichever is later. ]]>A judicial sale has been scheduled, what does that mean?Once your rights to redeem or reinstate your home has ended, the lender may sell the property at a judicial sale. Your home will be sold at an auction and the proceeds of the sale will be applied to the balance you owe on the loan. ]]>Can I do anything to stop the judicial sale?You can file a "Motion to Stay Judicial Sale" to hold off the judicial sale under certain circumstances. If one of the following situations applies, you should file a Motion to Stay Judicial Sale. You can find a Motion in the "Forms" section of this Guide:You are in the process of refinancing your home with a loan will cover the existing mortgage and any other costs;You have found a buyer for your home and have signed a contract for the sale of your home; or You have found a buyer for your home and have an offer for short sale of the home. ]]>When do I need to move out of my home?One of the last steps of a foreclosure case is when an Order of Possession is entered by the judge telling you that you must move out of your home by a certain date. Until the sheriff has to enforce the Order of Possession (and evict you if you are still living in the property), you are able to stay in your home. ]]>I am getting letters and phone calls offering help; can these people help me?After a foreclosure case is filed, you will get many letters from all types of people offering to "help" you avoid foreclosure. Beware: if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.Do not sign a deed to your house without checking with a lawyerDo not sign any papers you do not understandCheck with a lawyer or your mortgage company before entering into any deal involving your homeIf you speak only Spanish, the law says that before you sign a mortgage or any papers, you have the right to deal with a person who speaks your languageGo to the "Related Articles" section to learn more about foreclosure rescue scams.]]> You may use these forms and instructions to help you solve your problem. To find out where to file court forms and if there are any fees to file the forms, check with your county Circuit Clerk. To find out how to contact your Circuit Clerk, visit the Illinois Courts' website.]]>6676index.cfm?fuseaction=home.dsp_content&contentID=6676Cook County Verified Answer to Mortgage Foreclosure4878index.cfm?fuseaction=home.dsp_content&contentID=4878Appearance and Jury Demand3982index.cfm?fuseaction=home.dsp_content&contentID=3982Instructions for Appearance and Jury Demand4669index.cfm?fuseaction=home.dsp_content&contentID=4669Application and Order to Sue or Defend as an Indigent Person in Cook County6559index.cfm?fuseaction=home.dsp_content&contentID=6559Motion to Stay Judicial Sale of HomeThis progam will help you write a Motion to Stay Judicial Sale. This motion can be used to delay a foreclosure sale if you have found a buyer for your home, or if you are in the process of refinancing your loan.6774index.cfm?fuseaction=home.dsp_content&contentID=6774Are you being sued in a foreclosure or eviction action?6141index.cfm?fuseaction=home.dsp_content&contentID=6141Forms for Defending a Foreclosure Lawsuit with Instructions6450index.cfm?fuseaction=home.dsp_content&contentID=6450Motion to Stay Judicial Sale of Home Listed below are other articles that you may find helpful.Note: You may leave this page when you click on a link below.]]> 66index.cfm?fuseaction=home.dsp_content&contentID=66How Long Will a Foreclosure on My Home Take?1779index.cfm?fuseaction=home.dsp_content&contentID=1779How to Waive Your Court Costs5394index.cfm?fuseaction=home.dsp_content&contentID=5394Going to Court on Your Own Video6339index.cfm?fuseaction=home.dsp_content&contentID=6339Mortgage Foreclosure Overview6328index.cfm?fuseaction=home.dsp_content&contentID=6328What Happens Once a Foreclosure Lawsuit is Filed